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Wednesday, 23 March 2016

Buhari never rejected joining the Islamic States Coalition against Terrorism- Shehu Garba

In an article titled "The Smell of Trivia" which he shared on his
Facebook wall, Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Shehu
Garba, says President Buhari never rejected joining the Islamic States
Coalition against Terrorism.
Garba in his article said the backlash after Nigeria joined the
coalition is uncalled for as Buhari during his meeting with Saudi
Arabia's king only said "Even if we are not a part of it, we support
you". Read his article after the cut..

A good number of the reactions to President Muhammadu
Buhari’s announcement that Nigeria has joined the Islamic Coalition
Against Terrorism, show quite clearly that many Nigerians do not fully
understand the president’s motives for this decision.

With the rise of the Boko Haram Terrorist group of the past few years,
Nigeria faces a threat such as no other in its entire history and
existence. Desperate times require desperate, unusual, measures.
The girls in Gwoza who were raped by militants do not care where the
help comes from as far as they will eventually be able to move about
freely without fear of being kidnapped and used as sex slaves.

The mothers in Bama whose sons were slaughtered before their eyes do not
worry whether Boko Haram is defeated by a Christian or Muslim
coalition. The hundreds of thousands in IDP camps are concerned simply
about when they can safely return to their homes and resume their normal
lives. For these ones most hard hit by the Boko Haram terrorists,
whether the help they so desperately need comes from the United States
of America or from Saudi Arabia does not matter.

One of the main thrusts of President Buhari’s campaign was the war on
terror. He promised that his administration would bring an end to Boko
Haram, and set about doing just that as soon as he was elected,
travelling to different countries and meeting with various heads of
state to discuss the way forward on the issue.

At the time, no Nigerian worried that President Buhari was seeking help
from the West. No one worried about the ideology of those willing and
able to help our country to defeat terror. Nigerians were simply united
with their President in a determination to bring Boko Haram to an end so
that our brothers and sisters in the northeast can resume their normal
lives.

It is on account of these people and their desperate situation, and on
the basis of national interest only, that President Buhari accepted the
offer, with both hands, of assistance from G7 countries at the
commencement of his administration. Religion was not a consideration
then.

It is also not a consideration now that he has made the decision to
embrace help in fighting terror from the Middle-East. The safety of
Nigerians and the total annihilation of Boko Haram is of more importance
than the unfounded worries of Nigeria’s so-called Islamisation.

Those efforts by President Buhari led to several gains, including the
technical defeat of Boko Haram by the end of 2015 as he had promised
during the election campaigns. Once again, our Commander-in-Chief has
sought help where he believes our country will benefit and the religious
affiliation or ideology of our benefactors should not be the paramount
consideration.

It is simply one of those cases where the enemies of our enemy has
become our enemy. The enemy of terrorists all around the globe is our
friend.
The fears that our country’s membership in this coalition will draw
Islamic State, ISIS’s attention to Nigeria are too late.

As the President has repeatedly maintained, it is Boko Haram that
proclaimed allegiance to ISIS, thereby dragging us into the global
terrorism network. By pledging allegiance to ISIS, the terrorists
already drew the international terror group’s attention to this part of
the world. ISIS proudly and openly accepted this proclamation of
allegiance.

They have their sights set on us already.
Terrorism is heathen and knows no religion. It can only be defeated by
the unity of entire humanity. Criticism of the membership of this
alliance only shows our disarray and a lack of unity against terror and
will only make the terrorists happy.

The fears of so-called Islamisation are strange and unfounded, and meant
only to feed the fear and suspicions existing among Nigerians.
With a precedent as shown above, it will be unkind and uncharitable of
anyone to accuse President Buhari of executing deception. In an
unusually harsh commentary, this country's most respected newspaper

The Punch on Sunday succeeded in exactly doing this. Read this:
"The presidency’s doublespeak on Nigeria’s membership of the Saudi
Arabia-led anti-terror Islamic coalition is unfortunate in the extreme.

In the beginning, an aide to the president on media and publicity issued
a statement to the effect that the president had declined Nigeria’s
membership of the coalition and therefore did not attend its meeting
while on a diplomatic visit to Saudi Arabia.

But barely two weeks after, President Muhammadu Buhari himself confirmed
Nigeria’s membership of the coalition in an interview with a foreign
television station, Al- Jazeera. Buhari, who never tabled such a
sensitive matter before the National Assembly, said there are terrorists
in Nigeria who have claimed to be Muslims.

So, according to the him, “We are part of it because we have got terrorists in Nigeria who claim that they are Islamic.

So, if there is an Islamic coalition to fight terrorism, Nigeria will be
part of it because we are casualties of Islamic terrorism.
"This explanation is simplistic, to say the least and does not do any
good to expected political astuteness of President Buhari. In the main,
membership of any such coalition is unacceptable for it offends the
sensibilities of Nigerians in their diverse inclinations and should be
reversed."
Sensibilities offended?

Can anyone face the more than two million unhoused, mostly Muslim
refugees displaced by terror now being fed, almost exclusively by
Christian charities that it is offensive them, or that it matters to
them who, between Christians and Muslims is supplying the next meal? The
one who raised a tent over their heads?

Let me say that the presidential aide in question is no other than
myself. Although I write statements emanating from the Presidency, I
don't choose what headline writers will use to caption those stories.
To that extent, it is untrue of anyone to say the President had ab
initio rejected a membership of the coalition against terror.

What the President said, to paraphrase him, was that "we may not be with
you, but we will support you in every possible way we can." This does
not presuppose rejection. Even if it was one, nothing says that a
government cannot move or adjust its position based on new, superior
facts as we individuals do in our daily lives.

That some of the criticism against the President is coming from
opposition Senators is even more absurd, showing a lack of judgement and
discrimination- or even worse.
It holds up a mirror to the PDP's cluelessness and total absence of
strategy to defeat Boko Haram terrorism.

The party's projection of itself as better than the APC in this regard
is hobbled by their own record of indecision and serial abdication on
Chibok girls as disclosed by Ambassador Packock and greed, corruption
and a general incapacity to drive the anti terror war.

A set of politicians who failed to confront or attack terrorism while in
power have no right to challenge President Buhari's hounding of them.
To global acclaim. Trivia smells. There is a need for a new fragrance in
the air.